Music journalist Jim DeRogatis says, "This deeply troubles me: There's a very — I don't know what the percentage is — some percentage of fans are liking Kelly's music because they know. And that's really troublesome to me. There is some sort of — and this is tied up to complicated questions of racism and sexism — there is some sort of vicarious thrill to seeing this guy play this character in these songs and knowing that it's not just a character." (Credit: Village Voice)

Hopper's story was headlined, "Read the 'Stomach-Churning' Sexual Assault Accusations Against R. Kelly in Full." By Wednesday afternoon, it had generated 2,366 comments and the support of several other writers.

"DeRogatis, at that time the pop-music critic at the Chicago Sun-Times, was anonymously delivered the first of two videos he would receive depicting the pop star engaging in sexual acts with underage girls. Now the host of the syndicated public radio show Sound Opinions and a professor at Columbia College, DeRogatis, along with his former Sun-Times colleague Abdon Pallasch, didn't just break the story, they did the only significant reporting on the accusations against Kelly, interviewing hundreds of people over the years, including dozens of young women whose lives DeRogatis says were ruined by the singer.

"This past summer, leading up to Kelly's headlining performance at the Pitchfork Music Festival, DeRogatis posted a series of discussions about Kelly's career, the charges made against him, and sexual assault. He published a live review of the singer's festival set that was an indictment of Pitchfork and its audience for essentially endorsing a man he calls 'a monster.' In the two weeks since Kelly released his latest studio album, Black Panties, the conversation about him and why he has gotten a pass from music publications (not to mention feminist sites such as Jezebel) has been rekindled, in part because of the explicit nature of the album and also because of online arguments around the Pitchfork performance.

"I was one of those people who challenged DeRogatis and was even flip about his judgment — something I quickly came to regret. DeRogatis and I have tangled — even feuded on air — over the years; yet, amid the Twitter barbs, he approached me offline and told me about how one of Kelly's victims called him in the middle of the night after his Pitchfork review came out, to thank him for caring when no one else did. He told me of mothers crying on his shoulder, seeing the scars of a suicide attempt on a girl's wrists, the fear in their eyes. He detailed an aftermath that the public has never had to bear witness to.

"DeRogatis offered to give me access to every file and transcript he has collected in reporting this story — as he has to other reporters and journalists, none of whom has ever looked into the matter, thus relegating it to one man's personal crusade.

"I thought that last fact merited a public conversation about why. In this interview (which has been condensed significantly), DeRogatis speaks frankly and explicitly about the many disturbing charges against Kelly and says, ultimately, 'The saddest fact I've learned is nobody matters less to our society than young black women. Nobody.' . . ."

The brash, celebrity-gossip website TMZ posted a video Monday in which hip-hop entrepreneur Suge Knight says he likes the N-word better than "African American," and in early results from its informal online poll, the website's viewers agreed with Knight.

"Suge Knight is offended when people call him African American, because he's NOT African. On the other hand, he doesn't have a problem with the word, 'Ni**a,' " the website reported.

"Suge says it's offensive to label all Black people African American. And he goes further ... he thinks it's ridiculous that only rappers can use the word, 'Ni**a.' He thinks if it can be used by some, it should be used by all.

"At first his theory sounds a little shocking, but maybe he has a point.

"We're done with TMZ and we hope that any self-respecting Black person who ever visited them for gossip or fun or folly or as a guilty pleasure will say the same. There is no coming back, no apology needed, no sensitivity training, nothing.

"Bye, TMZ."

By contrast, on the hip-hop site hiphopdx.com, Danielle Harling quoted Compton rapper YG, who has a hit single using the word. "If the people using that word as a word to like uplift they friend or like say 'that's my homie, that's my friend,' I feel like it's love. Because they ain't using it in a disrespectful way."

It added, "Put more poetically by Chuck — 'Being called Black in America is the struggle to keep us moving and breathing over bloody water. Being a Nig**r or [Ni**a] without the context of history is like drowning in bloody water, dragging down those yet knowing to swim.' . . . "

"Participants in Tuesday's meeting said the session did not resolve the coverage issues recently raised by a group of news organizations and media associations, but said they were hopeful the discussion marked progress.

"Dozens of leading news organizations have complained about restrictions that at times have kept journalists from taking pictures and video of Obama performing official duties while the White House releases pictures taken by the president's staff. . . ."

Oreskes provided Journal-isms with this list of the media representatives:

"Rape in the Fields/Violación de un Sueño," "a deeply reported collaboration spanning multiple platforms that spotlighted the sexual assault of female farm workers," was among 14 winners of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards announced Wednesday by Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

"Led by producer and correspondent Lowell Bergman, this unique collaboration between the Investigative Reporting Program at U.C. Berkeley, the Center for Investigative Reporting, FRONTLINE and UNIVISION produced a dynamic cross platform documentary that focused on an overlooked subject; the sexual abuse, with impunity, of female migrant farm workers," the school said.

"The team documented the stories of farm workers who were preyed upon by their field bosses and co-workers telling the story through a series of unforgettable interviews with the victims, some all the more vulnerable because they are undocumented. The reporters tracked down some of the men accused of these crimes, often years after they occurred. The pacing of the online and broadcast video, the dynamic online resources, and the overall presentation were sharp and consistent. The unique collaboration, including the first ever between FRONTLINE and UNIVISION, enabled this multi-lingual effort to reach across the country and into the fields themselves, demanding action by those in authority."

Among other winners were WBEZ in Chicago for "This American Life: "Harper High School Parts 1 and 2," "a stark two-part radio series that captured the impact of gun violence on the students and staff of one Chicago high school"; WYPR in Baltimore for "The Lines Between Us," "an ambitious yearlong broadcast and multimedia series on inequality in Baltimore"; and "The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement", a POV episode on PBS that the judges called "an intimate short documentary profile of an 85-year-old barber and civil rights veteran."

"Nathan B. Forrest High School in Jacksonville will soon be known as something else after the community made clear to the Duval County Public School Board that they wanted the school changed. The board voted unanimously Monday night to remove the Forrest name.

"How did the school get that name? When it opened in 1959, an organization called the Daughters of the Confederacy pushed for the Forrest name despite a number of other noncontroversial names that were under discussion, including the student favorite, Valhalla High School. In 2007 the School Advisory Council asked the school board to change the name but it refused by a 5-2 vote. Since then, membership on the panel has changed. . . ."

In this case, however, the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville editorialized in support of removing Forrest's name. Columnist Mark Woods noted Wednesday that in 1959, the Times-Union supported segregationists who named the school to express defiance of the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision. An editorial then "decried the 'reckless edict' of the court."

In May, the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., supported a City Council committee recommendation to rename Nathan Bedford Forrest Park along with two others, while leaving as is the statue of Forrest and the graves of Forrest and his wife.

Confederate Park would be named Promenade Park, and Jefferson Davis Park would become Harbor Park.

In January, the newspaper supported efforts to honor legendary anti-lynching crusader and publisher Ida B. Wells, but not in Forrest Park, as one councilman proposed.

"Ida B. Wells was a heroic anti-lynching crusader, suffragist, women's rights advocate, journalist, speaker and founding member of the NAACP from the 1870s until her death in Chicago in 1931. She conducted much of her early anti-lynching crusade journalism in the basement of First Baptist Church-Beale Street.

"It is a shame that this city has yet to honor Wells with some kind of prominent monument or memorial. . . ."

The council acted as the Tennessee General Assembly considered bills to prevent local jurisdictions from renaming or rededicating any "statue, monument, memorial, nameplate, plaque, historic flag display, school, street, bridge, building, park, preserve, or reserve which has been erected for, or named or dedicated in honor of, any historical military figure, historical military event, military organization, or military unit, and is located on public property."

The editorial board acknowledged on Feb. 10, "Jefferson Davis, Nathan Bedford Forrest and other leaders of the Confederate States of America clearly were on the wrong side of history. Confederate forces may have been fighting to preserve states' rights in the Civil War, but a major part of what they fought for was the utterly indefensible right to keep blacks enslaved. And for decades after the war ended, white Southerners kept a boot on the necks of African-Americans through Jim Crow laws and segregation.

"Those who say that the Confederacy is a part of Memphis' history that should be remembered, rather than erased, make a valid point. But in a city where 63 percent of the citizens — and most of the 26 percent who live in poverty — are black, the glorification of the Confederacy and its heroes is a hard pill to swallow. . . ."

"Bartiromo, one of the first women to rise to success on television by reporting on business news, and CNBC's only on-air talent of color, announced she will depart her longtime home at CNBC for its rival, the Fox Business Network. Bartiromo's contract ended November 24, concluding 20 years with CNBC. . . ."

"The message of the release was to focus on giving journalists of color a chance to host a show on one of the cable business channels. When we read Bartiromo was leaving CNBC, we thought that would be a good time to respond. Bartiromo is Italian American which means she is a minority.

"We were thinking minority but journalist of color was written in the release. This does not take away from the main point that journalists of color should be considered to host a show."

However, Italian-Americans were not always considered white. Jennifer Guglielmo, who co-edited the 2003 book, "Are Italians White?: How Race is Made in America," wrote, "Throughout the twentieth century, many people of color have critiqued the ways Italian Americans have asserted and claimed a white identity. W.E.B. Du Bois, Bernardo Vega, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Ann Petry, Ana Castillo, Piri Thomas, and other influential writers and activists have also commented on the complicated and contradictory ways Italians have adopted and challenged the practices of white supremacy."

"Intolerant governments in Ankara, Tehran, and Beijing used mostly anti-state charges to silence a combined 107 critical reporters, bloggers, and editors. Turkey and Iran retained their distinctions as the worst and second worst jailers for two years in a row, despite each having released some prisoners during 2013. The number detained by China held steady. . . ."

The final edition of "Smiley & West," the public radio show pairing activist Tavis Smiley and scholar-activist Cornel West, airs the weekend of Dec. 27. "The Tavis Smiley Show" on Public Radio International will expand to two hours in January.

The pair, who began the show in 2010, are perhaps best known for their vocal criticism of President Obama. A year ago, syndicated radio host Tom Joyner, on whose show Smiley once delivered commentary, blamed the two for creating the climate that led to Time magazine editor-at-large Mark Halperin calling the president a "dick."

"While I am appalled at Halperin's statement . . . I'm even more disgusted with Smiley and West, two brothers who I did have expectations of — and thought I knew," Joyner said then. "These two have done much worse than what Halperin has done because they set the tone for it, opened the door to it, and must take much of the blame for creating a climate that would make a white, professional journalist feel comfortable verbally and vulgarly attacking the first black president of the United States."

An October news release said of Smiley and West, "Both agree that it is critical to offer differing viewpoints on the airwaves, especially the stories of the more than 45 million Americans living in poverty.

"Smiley will be devoting more time to the Tavis Smiley Network, the first online programming network for BlogTalkRadio."

Smiley laid out the rationale for the program in a 2012 "open letter" to Torey Malatia, then president and CEO of Chicago Public Media, who had canceled the show on his station.

After six years, columnist Brenda Payton has returned to the Oakland Tribune, writing this month about the death of Nelson Mandela. Payton, who wrote a column about Oakland three times a week for 25 years, is filling in for Tammerlin Drummond, who is on a Nieman journalism fellowship at Harvard University. In her first return column, Sept. 22, Payton explored changes in the city over six years. In her most recent, on Sunday, Payton observed that "Typically, the media coverage of Mandela's death and the world's reaction has portrayed him as a superman who single-handedly changed the world. Maybe it's an inherent flaw of the media; it's certainly a disservice to Mandela himself." The key was "sustained organization," Payton wrote. She plans to write twice a month.

Entrepreneur Rafat Ali, founder of PaidContent, one of the leading publications covering the business of online media, is joining the board of the Investigative News Network, a network of 92 independent, nonprofit community and investigative newsrooms. Lisa Williams wrote Tuesday for the network.

Wendy L. Wilson, former news editor for Essence magazine and former news editor for Essence.com, has been named managing editor of Jet magazine, Johnson Publishing Co. announced on Tuesday. "In this role, Wilson is responsible for generating and writing original stories, developing content ideas for the magazine and website, and assisting in the growth of the JET brand," an announcement said on Tuesday. "Wilson will also assist the Editor-in-Chief with planning, decision-making, and evaluating editorial content. . . . "

"The International Press Institute (IPI) today urged South Sudan's government to refrain from slapping restrictions on journalists and interfering with news coverage in the aftermath of an apparent coup attempt in Africa's newest country," the institute said Wednesday. IPI also said, "The unrest comes amid growing concern about the erosion of press freedom in South Sudan, including the temporary detention of several journalists from the Citizen newspaper in the past six months. The government also recently ordered all journalists to register with the government, allegedly to protect them against arrest or harassment. . . ."

Richard Prince's Journal-isms originates from Washington and is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It began in print before most of us knew what the Internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a "column." For newcomers: The words in blue (on most computers) are links leading to more information. The Web site BugMeNot.com provides passwords and user names to some registration-only news sites, but use may be illegal in some states. Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity.

Comments

We don't seem to get it; we are doing this to ourselves with every dollar we spend on his music, and the music of others who degrade Black women.

Sassan31

With all the supposed so-called "evidence", does one think the prosecutor would give R. Kelly a pass for all these "rapes"? I think not. The fact is that these were accusations from people who looked at Kellz as a dollar sign. If there was SO MUCH LEGIT EVIDENCE, it is preposterous to think that charges would not have been filed out of the dozens and dozens of these accusations. So-called "reporting" from a nobody loser reporter trying to gain his fame off the back of R. Kelly.

detmem

@Sassan31 It is almost impossible for a prosecutor to get a rape conviction without the cooperation of the victim, no matter the evidence. It this case there is video of him and the girl, but since the girl would not testify (no doubt due to a generous payment from Kelly) the prosecutor has a weak rape case.

edgar_montrose

I agree with you on many of your points, bar one, that his music is 'garbage'. That is where the conflict for most people arises. He is a sublime musical talent with a voice that appeals to numerous spectrums of the music buying public. Sadly R.Kelly as a human being is a lacklustre resource.

I have for years rebuked numerous people who included his music on playlists at parties I attended and even encouraged my son not to find inspiration in 'I Believe I Can Fly' and 'Storm is Over' due to my disdain for him.

Yet this summer, I was in a quiet cafe in Johannesburg when I heard the most beautiful piece of music being played. It was a sound so mellifluous, it brought me to tears and awakened that spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions in me that only a handful of touching films and songs have ever managed to do. I was completely oblivious to the artist and had never heard the song before in my life. After composing myself, I asked the manager what song had just played and he told me it was R.Kelly, "When A Woman Loves".

That conflict so many must know arose, however 99 pence later I was morally poorer but musically enriched. Thankfully his new album is absolutely atrocious so I can hate the man and his music. However the song I mentioned still headlines my favourite playlist.

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